Kill the gods, your experience

[T. Foster]

I never had PCs do any god-killing (with the semi-exception of those lame Avatar series FR modules) but there was one guy in my old group who was obsessed on playing out god-vs-god grudge match duels -- I swear for a couple years this was the only kind of "D&D" he wanted to play.

I like the idea of gods walking among men (Odin, among others, did it all the time) and that high level characters might eventually find themselves in direct opposition to one or more gods (or at least godlings -- among which I include demon lords, archdevils, Tiamat, etc.). In both of those cases I think it's approporiate that the gods have stats and, honestly, with the power-level of D&D I tend to play at (almost everybody in the world who isn't a PC is 0-level, 9th level+ is "high level," 12-14th level is about the maximum you're ever going to see, 18th level is legendary "once in a millenium" stuff) the gods as statted in the books (especially the Greater Gods) are so far above where the PCs are that the effect is pretty much the same as if they were declared unbeatable by fiat (Iuz, Lolth, Tiamat, and some other demigod-types are "beatable," but no PC in any of my games is ever going to stand a chance in combat against Odin, especially on his home turf (where, per D&Dg, gods get extra special abilities and double (or is it triple) hp)).

 

[Voadam]

I've played in one, ended in a big old TPK when the young insane god time stopped then killed us high level characters with no ways for us to act or escape. Very dissapointing and anticlimactic.

I've run one where the party killed a darklord/demigod. The son of Ravanna and a mortal priestess of Kali. The party had to quest to get an artefact blessed crossbow bolt and hammer it in through melee to work as he could deflect arrows but they did it.

It was quite climactic. The fight went on for a long time with lots of illusions, shadow summonings and disguising as PCs on the raskshasa demigod's part along with clerical spell power and came down to the wire with the PCs throwing everything they had at him and one PC ending up staking him.

One of the PCs had semi-reluctantly become a champion of Shiva, able to call on the deity for extra arms to fight with and divine fire and destruction powers. This being ravenloft the PC was skeptical about whether the power would betray him for a long time and was reluctant to embrace it all the time. In the fight he embraced the Shiva power fully. After the god was dead the extra arms gestured for the PC to take the corpse of the demigod and throw it into a divine pillar of fire in the rakshasa's shrine room of the various hindu gods. The PC did so while invoking Shiva. Power radiated out and everyone felt the fabric of the universe be destroyed and recreated, changed forever.

And the game then turned from 2e to 3e.

 

[Geron Raveneye]

It's funny to notice that the topic of this thread was actually the major reason that Peter Adkison wrote and published The Primal Order 13 years or so ago. Is still one of the best RPG products for deities, in my opinion...and somehow, it makes them a lot harder to kill.

 

[kigmatzomat]

Boy howdy, does it.

I was in one D&D 2e/TPG campaign, where a pantheon of gods was being killed of by a constructed godslayer plague. We, the mortal champions, were uplifted to demigod status and told to find the source of the disease. (Note, mortals didn't die from the disease but they were mind controlled so the divine uplift was necessary)

We were dinky godlings and were still horrifically powerful.

IMC now, I use TPG for my divinities using two different sets of rules for each; spirits are bound to the prime material plane (which does not regen avatars) while the gods have their own demiplanes. Spirits have a huge primal flux but are more limited since they share the plane and thus their avatars won't regenerate (they stay dead). Gods have much less flux except on holy days when their worshippers provide boosts but their planes will regenerate their avatars.

The net result are spirits that act like the Incarnations... series while the gods are individually less powerful but far more free in their actions.

Death of spirits and gods is much more common in my cosmology, though mortals very rarely manage to pull it off without finding an already-weakened divinity and putting the boots to them. Spirits are much easier to assassinate, like the Incarnations, but another one tends to pop up in short order.

anyone from the Spirits of Krinn campaign stay out or I'll give Burne your XP.

Spoiler

I will be surprised if the conclusion of my campaign's overarcing plot doesn't involve the death of at least one divine being and I could easily see up to a half dozen gods and/or spirits biting the dust. The players could, in theory, become Spirits but it is very unlikely.

Fortunately, I figure I've got another 2 years before the plots are sufficiently resolved for that to occur, which should put the party at around 30th level, up from their current 20th.

 

[Ero Gaki]

I once killed a god in game. Garl Glittergold. My character hated gnomes. A lot. So he decided to kill their patron god. Not directly, mind you. My character killed every last gnome in the setting, thus killing Garl.

 

[Sarellion]

The gods in my campaign are more or less unkillable by mortals, not even suspect to the killing all worshippers death. Other gods and similar beings could kill them though or at least incapacitate them though.

All gods, plane lords and their highest servants are eternal beings, being made before time and immortal. Planelords are beings empowered by the creator god to create a plane of their own, some of them had to team up and make one.

My group fought a major incarnation of one the Planelords and managed to send him back to his prison.

Serad´hel was the smith of wonders of the Elysium. He was envious of the gods ability to create life and so he joined with the soon to be dark gods and the archdemons forces to gain that ability. He opened the gates to the abyss and let the demons free. Then he forged the minotaurs with the help of the dead earth goddess essence.

Afterwards he was imprisoned but his highest servants, the Masters of the Chains escaped. The Masters had the ability to keep their Lord´s subjects in thrall, as one of them could enslave the spirit, one the body and the last one the soul.

My group killed them when they tried to ressurect their master and one of the group absorbed their essence cores which were made of the Earth Goddess power.

Afterwards the Dark Gods used the essence of an Eternal Dragon to empower a major avatar who tried to go after the group to ressurect the Masters of Chains and then try the original plan again.

The group gathered an army to storm his fortress, the Crystal Forge where he made the minotaurs. The PC who still had the essence of his slain minions was able to depower him a bit, so he was actually fightable and then they killed him off, destroyed his hammer which could be used to reforge him or his minions and sent all his manifestations on the Prime back to prison.

 

[RFisher]

(With apologies to the late man in black...)

"I once killed a god in Limbo/Just to watch him die."

Sorry. I was catching up on XKCD today.

 

[thedungeondelver]

(With apologies to the late man in black...)

Tharizdun?

 

[FEADIN]

I have a character who slew Vaprak, the god of ogres and trolls in 5 rounds.
It's (it was) only a troll with more hp in the 1st ed.

 

[hamishspence]

Use the gods abilities to maximum:

In campaigns where you don't want much godslaying, make use of the powers they have: Ability to detect anything within X miles of site, ability to planeshift, lesser clerics/monsters, etc. If the god doesn't want to fight you its hard to make them do so. If they DO want to fight you they can do everything possible to shift the odds.

God Of War for PS2 is a possible source for how and why a godslaying campaign might start.